Many animals use vision to detect, discriminate, or recognize important objects such as prey, predators, homes, or mates. These objects may differ in color and brightness-having chromatic and achromatic contrast to the background or to other objects. Visual models are powerful tools to investigate contrast detection, but need to be calibrated by experimental data to provide robust predictions. The

This study comparatively analyzes the calculation performances of different large-eddy simulation (LES) combustion models in a diffused flame simulation to investigate the performances of different LES-turbulent combustion models. The flamelet/progress variable (FPV), partially stirred reactor (PaSR), and transport joint possibility density function (PDF) combustion model are adopted to perform a

Objective To correlate the value of lactate in fetal scalp blood at delivery and the outcomes of the offspring at four years of age. Methods Cases where scalp blood lactate was taken within sixty minutes before delivery were identified from the randomized trial "Determination of pH or lactate in fetal scalp blood in management of intrapartum fetal distress”. Data were grouped according to the gene

Mine waste rock piles (WRPs) can contain sulfidic minerals whose interaction with oxygen and water can generate acid mine drainage (AMD). Thus, WRPs can be a long-term source of environmental pollution. Since the generation of AMD and its release into the environment is dependent on the net volume and bulk composition of waste rock, effective characterization of WRPs is necessary for successful re

The thermal environment outdoors affects human comfort and health. Mental and physical performance is reduced at high levels of air temperature being a problem especially in tropical climates. This paper deals with human comfort in the warm-humid city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The main aim was to examine the influence of urban micrometeorological conditions on people’s subjective thermal perception a

Background and aims: Plant diversity – ecosystem processes relationships are essential to our understanding of ecosystem functioning. We aimed at disentangling the nature of such relationships in a mesotrophic grassland that was highly heterogeneous with regards to nutrient availability. Methods: Rather than targeting primary productivity, like most existing reports do, we focused our study on bel

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder usually affecting females. It is associated with multiple disabilities including intellectual disability leading to a high level of dependency in all aspects of daily living including participation in physical activities. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate physical activity behaviors by developing measures of walking, describ

Background: Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) is a devastating disease, often leaving patients with severe disabilities. It has been shown that IgG anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antibodies appear in approximately 25% of HSE patients and could be associated with impaired recovery of cognitive performance. Objectives: To characterize the prevalence of IgM and IgA anti-NMDAR antibodies i

Myanmar is endowed with abundant Sn-W mineralization, pre-eminent amongst which is the world-class Mawchi deposit. In the Mawchi area, N-S trending vertical or steeply dipping quartz veins are hosted by both Eocene granite and Carboniferous to Early Permian metasediments. Three stages of ore formation are recognized; (i) tourmaline-cassiterite stage (ii) main ore stage and (iii) sulfide stage. Tou

In Sweden, district heating meets currently above half of the heat demands in buildings. District heating research in Sweden has a long tradition dating back to 1975. The latest research program period included 34 projects and was executed between 2013 and 2017. In this paper, a synthesis is performed on the Swedish research frontier by assessing these recent research projects. The three study pur

Background: Overall survival for patients with small intestinal neuroendocrine tumours (siNETs) is long, even with metastatic disease, making quality of life issues relevant. The impact of surgery on quality of life is not known. We investigated determinants of health-related quality of life in patients who had undergone surgery for a siNET. Methods: Patients operated for a siNET between 1998 and

Background: Despite increasing concerns about the health effects of climate change, the extent to which workers are affected by hot weather is not well documented. This study aims to investigate the association between high temperatures and work-related injuries using data from a large subtropical city in China. Methods: We used workers’ compensation claims to identify work-related injuries in Gua

We estimate behavioral spillovers from environmental policy within the context of a natural experiment on food waste in Sweden. Exploiting the staggered implementation of food-waste collection across Swedish municipalities, we use a difference-in-difference design to measure the causal effect of introducing such collection on another pro-environmental behavior, namely the sorting of packaging wast

Dehydrogenase based bioelectrocatalysis has been increasingly exploited in recent years in order to develop new bioelectrochemical devices, such as biosensors and biofuel cells, with improved performances. In some cases, dehydrogeases are able to directly exchange electrons with an appropriately designed electrode surface, without the need for an added redox mediator, allowing bioelectrocatalysis

Introduction: Although many surgeons have adopted the use of biologic and biosynthetic meshes in complex abdominal wall hernia repair, others have questioned the use of these products. Criticism is addressed in several review articles on the poor standard of studies reporting on the use of biologic meshes for different abdominal wall repairs. The aim of this consensus review is to conduct an evide

AIMS: Neoadjuvant treatment has now become the standard of care for oesophageal and gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of neoadjuvant therapy on the expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 1 (HER1/EGFR), HER2 and HER3, in oesophageal and gastric adenocarcinoma.METHODS: Immunohistochemical expression of EGFR, HER2 and HER3 was examined and compared i

New Findings: What is the central question of this study? Collagen-binding β1-integrins function physiologically in cellular control of dermal interstitial fluid pressure (PIF) in vivo and thereby participate in control of extravascular fluid volume. During anaphylaxis, simulated by injection of compound 48/80, integrin αVβ3 takes over this physiological function. Here we addressed the question wh

Aims: Ankle–brachial index (ABI) is the most commonly used test when diagnosing peripheral vascular disease and is considered a marker for cardiovascular risk. Transcutaneous oxygen pressure (TcPO2), a test associated with microvascular function, has in several studies shown better correlation with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) healing. Whether a low TcPO2 could be a marker for mortality in the high-r

The process of European integration resulted in a marked increase in transnational economic flows, yet regional inequalities along many developmental indicators remain. We analyze the unevenness of European economies with respect to the embedding of export sectors in upstream domestic flows and their dependency on dominant export partners. We use the WIOD dataset of sectoral flows for the period o

In the European Union (EU), mandatory durability ecodesign requirements have recently been set for some products, including lighting products; further development of durability standards is also expected in the future. Durability standards can bring environmental and consumer benefits, but the question remains about what optimal durability is. In this paper, the product lifetime aspect of durabili